Final Projects

This was my final assignment for Cultural Anthropology 2020. For 2021, see the reflections on Is anthropology more important than ever? when I tried a new textbook: Introducing Anthropology: What makes us human?


I. The final chapters in Essentials of Cultural Anthropology all engage issues that are inescapably global. Economics, Politics, Environment, Health, Religion, Media–each of these issues cannot be tackled without global cooperation. As we read back in the Global Age class: “Solving the challenges that face the human race in your lifetime will require greater engagement, interaction, and cooperation–not more isolation and ignorance” (Guest 2020, 30)

Pick one of these issues. Keeping in mind the Margaret Mead injunction, that “people must recognize the defects of the old invention, and someone must make a new one” (in Guest, 352 and see the Sustainability class) describe how we can

  • recognize the defects of the old;
  • make something new;
  • move people toward a solution.

II. Each of these final chapters could be rewritten or at least updated in terms of what has happened in 2020. Pick one and describe what lessons endure. What most needs to be updated?

III. Instead of writing an essay, you can also do something that would be creative and public-facing. Possible examples include:

Pin
Share
Tweet
Email
Print